Category: Uncategorized
-
Day 4: Cipières to Amirat (30km) Tales of the Unexpected.
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect Oscar Wilde In the gite at Cipières the evening before, I made an interesting discovery. The walking times between various stages of the GR4 as described in my Topoguide had so far proved uncannily accurate. This meant that my planned walk…
-
Day 3: Roquefort-le-Pins to Cipieres (36km) Chalk and cheese
Who bravely dares, must sometimes risk a fall. Tobias Smollett At 3pm I left Grasse and embarked on the GR4. Five hours later I reached the Lavande gite at Cipières. You couldn’t imagine two more different places. Chalk and cheese! I spent the night at the Foyer Côte d’Azur a…
-
Day 2 – Aspremont to Roquefort-les-Pins (40km) Silence is Golden.
The deepest truths are found in silence, not in speech Carl Jung The 14 nuns of the Cistercian convent of Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix at Castaigniers have their work cut out at the moment making chocolates and praying for world peace. I was maybe naive to have expected to encounter a merry throng…
-
Day 1: Menton to Aspremont (45 km) Gordon Bennett! One of my Leki poles doesn’t work!
Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification James Gordon Bennett The day did not get off to the best of starts. As I laid out my kit on the bed in my room in the religious retreat I was staying in at Menton I tried to…
-
A day in Menton – in search of Mansfield, Rugby and Hymns.
It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves Katherine Mansfield In 1920, the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield came to stay in the French resort of Menton as a valetudinarian, a person seeking health. The word comes from the Latin valere, to be well, but it is…
-
Crossing the Hexagon – From Menton to Mont St Michel (and beyond).
France is a paradise inhabited by people who believe they’re in hell Sylvain Tesson – author of Sur les Chemins Noirs Shortly after New Year, quite by chance, I bumped into a couple of old acquaintances, and faithful followers of this blog, in the Waitrose car park in Salisbury. After…
-
Day 16: Saint-Just-Ibarre to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (25km) In Praise of Old Hemp.
He flashed like a meteor across the sheepdog horizon.There never was such an outstanding personality. Adam Telfer on Old Hemp You may wonder what Britain’s greatest export to the world is. Constitutional law? Parliamentary democracy? The steam engine? The Beatles? Scotch Whisky? Mr Bean? We can debate the subject until…
-
Day 15: Hôpital-Sainte-Blaise to Saint-Just- Ibarre (40 km) Entering Basque Country.
Everyone who has visited the Basque country longs to return; it is a blessed land. Victor Hugo Shortly after 9am I passed a sign informing me that I was just entering the Pays Basque. Curiously it was written in both French and Basque, a language I am completely unfamiliar with.…
-
Day 14: Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Hôpital-Sainte-Blaise (23 km) The Kindness of Strangers
Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. Tennessee Williams – A Street Car named Desire. The small things in life make the world of difference. A smile from a check out assistant: a cheery wave from a vague acquaintance; a like on a blog post.…
-
Day 13: Bruges to Oloron Sainte Marie (42 km) Celebrity Chefs.
Good food is always a trouble and its preparation should be regarded as a labour of love. Elisabeth David Today was a marathon of a day – 42km or 26.2km as the crow flies or as Pheidippides ran in 490BC from the Battle of Marathon to Athens with the message…
-
Day 12: Lourdes to Bruges (30 km) Saints and Sinners.
Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde Corinne was a saint. She could, she told me, have charged a good deal more than 25 euros a night for a room if she did AirBnB. But she didn’t because she simply preferred the pleasure of…
-
Day 11: Bagnères de Bigorre to Lourdes (34 km) Do you believe in Miracles?
Since most scientists are just a bit religious, and most religious are seldom wholly unscientific, we find humanity in a comical position. His scientific intellect believes in the possibility of miracles inside a black hole, while his religious intellect believes in them outside it. William Golding Do you believe in…
Pilgrim's Progress - Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK 